Daniel returned to the dinning room to see his family and the Charlestons engaging in some calmer discussion. While in a way he had withheld information from his friend, he knew he had to do so for the protection of himself and his family. His family had been in Moon Lake fifteen years, moving there when Peter was one year old, and they had grown accustomed to their home and loved it deeply. The pack that Daniel joined was of decent size and were all very welcoming to him, though none of them were also police officers as he was. The female Basset Hound based weredog that turned him worked in Moon Lake's bakery and passed the warning that with his transformation that if he was intimate with Francine that she would become a weredog as well. Francine accepted that, and a night or two later, she became his Golden Retriever. Peter had volunteered to be changed last year, to fit in with his family, and out of care for his parents to avoid burdening them with his death while their lifespans as weres would keep them looking rather young. And as he saw Peter share polite conversation and asking on her age, Daniel smiled as he knew that his son would give Karen a real friend that she'd need.
His chief concern for the moment was making sure that Moe hadn't lost total faith in him, as Daniel did enjoy the platonic friendship that he had had with Moe while they had been growing up. Moon Lake's "weirdness" and its rules could give a lot of people a fair share of trouble at first, but just as he and Francine had accepted it, people did tend to respond well in time. And since Nichole and Moe were having a fairly calm discussion, he hoped that the two were coming to be at least a bit more comfortable with things that related to Moon Lake.
"So... I know we all asked for water," Nichole commented offhand to Francine after swallowing the last bite of her hamburger, "but I notice that neither you nor Daniel had any beer or anything like that... Is Moon Lake in a dry county?"
Francine shook her head. Moe's Pizzeria had served some alcoholic beverages in its heyday, and Nichole likely remembered some of the times when they had gotten together before Daniel and her had moved to Moon Lake with Peter and all of them had enjoyed a beer or two.
"Moon Lake isn't dry..." Francine answered, "but as weres... our sensitivity to alcohol is different from when we were human. It'd actually take LESS for us to get drunk... and many of us tend to stick away from it in many cases because the last thing we want is a drunken were to go out bite someone while drunk and not realize what they were doing. It's a means to protect our secrecy and to avoid being the sort of monsters that we're depicted as..."
"But you could lose control?" Nichole asked, sounding borderline suspicious.
"It's possible... but that's why we generally don't drink alcohol out of preference... and those that do are highly attentive to how much they drink," Francine explained softly, "we are in control of ourselves and do our best to stay that way... ESPECIALLY when we're with friends and those we wish to protect."
Nichole didn't answer immediately.
"I mean... we are still friends, right?" Francine asked, "I may be fuzzy from time to time now... but I'm still the same me. Daniel is still the same Daniel in spite of ALL our changes."
"I suppose," Nichole said slowly, as she was still trying to process things.
By this point Daniel had reentered the room fully and was able to interject into the respective conversations. He gave a soft coughing noise to alert them to presence. Everyone in the room did look up to face him.
"Peter... why don't you take Karen out into the backyard for a moment or two, there are some things I need let Moe and Nichole know about," Daniel said to his son. Peter nodded and stood up.
"Come on, you said you're from New York, right?" Peter asked to Karen, offering her his hand politely.
"The borough of Brooklyn, yeah," Karen answered.
"Then you'll like the stargazing you can do here," Peter commented, "nowhere NEAR as much light pollution here."
Karen shrugged, gave a small smile and then followed Peter out of the room. Moe and Nichole traded glances and noticed the look that Peter had given to their daughter and how Karen had responded. It was very friendly, which could very well mean a real chat about the birds and the bees in order to keep her human unless she truly wanted to go through with this, and not making them grandparents, but that would have to wait for the moment. Moe even remembered that Karen had voiced some idea on being the Charleston's family were. As the door shut, they looked up to Daniel.
"Don't worry," Daniel assured them with a smile, "Peter is a complete gentleman and would never force himself on Karen. In fact I'd wage she'd have a real friend in him that the Gambonis have prevented her from forming."
"I'd hope so," Moe answered firmly but respectfully as well, "though... seeing him as a teenager is a bit new..."
"He was still in diapers when we last saw him," Nichole commented.
"As Karen was when we last her," Francine smiled, "and she is looking well... all things considered... you both did a great job as parents."
"If only the Gambonis hadn't had us on the run for so long," Moe sighed and looked down.
"I can actually bring some good news on that front," Daniel spoke up as he turned one chair around to sit closer to Moe and Nichole, "remember what I said about letting them make their own mistakes that would lead to them getting caught?"
Moe and Nichole both nodded.
"Well... I did alert the FBI that they had been chasing you and that you were coming to Moon Lake," Daniel began, "just a head's up to let let them have some agents alerted to where the Gambonis could be. In the process... I learned that the Feds had some additional warrants that they wanted to execute with the Gambonis, but they didn't say what the exact charges were."
"That sounds more like the same thing we've heard time and again," Moe pointed out, "police have promised us protection and that they would go to prison... yet every time the evidence against them was circumstantial at best."
Daniel sighed and nodded. Mob groups tended to be hard to catch because they were better organized than common thugs or lone criminals. Generally because they had the time to think out their crimes or made sure the crime occurred in rather protected circumstances or in areas where the people were too afraid to do anything. But that didn't mean that the mob couldn't be broken.
"Well... the Feds certainly feel confident about a conviction," Daniel answered, "that was them on the line. They nabbed Albert Gamboni at Fort Wolfe. Apparently he'd gone around the post asking if anyone had seen Karen as though she were a lost relative. Apparently he forgot that the US Army doesn't station its men in their home states. One of the soldiers there was from New York and recognized Albert. He called the MPs who caught him and turned him over to the FBI. So for the moment, it would appear as though he's on his way to jail."
"Until he goes to trial," Nichole commented.
Daniel nodded, "and if convicted... given all the stuff the Gambonis have done over the years that you told me about on the phone... he'd go away for a very long time."
Moe gave a bit of a smile, "That's actually good news."
Daniel nodded, "though there will be some other things we'll need to do..."
Moe and Nichole traded glances and then looked back to Daniel.
"Apparently he had managed to hack your cellphone," Daniel said slowly, "either through an email that you answered... or he somehow managed to get hold of it before you started running from them to protect Karen..."
"He..." Moe said slowly.
"The Feds found a tracking program on Albert's phone or laptop that he had on him that was tracking your phone," Daniel answered, "It's probably how they managed to track you down when you moved... thankfully Moon Lake is in a bit of a dead zone for cellphones and only a few specific companies are actually able to have service here..."
"Never thought the bad plan I'd had would actually come back to help me," Moe commented, in some shock that they had been able to so easily track him.
"Can you remove the bug?" Nichole answered.
"You'll need to bring it down to the station and let our tech officer and Melissa Stovall take a look at," Daniel answered, "they can figure out if the hack was through some program... software... or something sneaked onto or into the phone... hardware."
"Melissa Stovall..." Nichole said slowly.
"Moon Lake's tech support officer... and the Mayor's wife, and from what I hear follows tech developments closely," Daniel answered, "if it's a software, she might be able to remove the bug from your phone... if not... I'm afraid the phone will have to be destroyed."
"We can do that," Moe answered, "though... it''ll make Moe's Pizzeria here a bit more difficult. All my supplier numbers are on that phone."
Daniel gave a smile at Moe opening his pizza shop in Moon Lake. It had a small local diner in Dimaggios and didn't have the major franchises, but Moe's Pizzeria had always been a favorite of his.
"I'm sure you could copy them down or ask for a printout of the numbers if we have to destroy the phone," Daniel answered, "if not... surely there are others you could get your ingredients from."
"Come now... good pizza requires the RIGHT ingredients and they don't just come from anywhere," Moe answered with an old line that he'd always used in defense of his pizzeria.